


moon river

by irritable



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, valentine's day fluff even though im severely late
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 15:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13720140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irritable/pseuds/irritable
Summary: “It’s Valentine’s today.”Nadine raises an eyebrow. “Are we celebrating that?”





	moon river

**Author's Note:**

> thank u, frank ocean

 

 

 

> _"two drifters off to see the world; it's such a crazy world you'll see."_

 

The noon sun is blinding, obnoxiously hanging right in the middle of the sky. 

It’s also relentlessly hot today, forcing them both out of their shirts in the blistering heat. 

The ruins afford them little cover, but Chloe manages to find a broken down ledge that she can hop off and duck under if she wants a bit of shade. Tomorrow, if she isn’t too burnt to move, she’ll bring a damn umbrella. 

They’re not too far from a rural town, so for once she has a cell service good enough to receive Nate’s banal text selfies. 

A ray of light slices through a crack in the ledge, reflecting off Chloe’s phone and right into her eyes. Cursing under her breath, she presses into the stone wall, rough and cool against the skin on her back. She turns the brightness up on her phone and brings it closer to her nose, so she can see what Nate’s just sent her.

Elena’s the subject of the photo, which isn’t surprising in the slightest. This time, she’s barefaced, hair falling messily over her face, and waking to what looks like scrambled eggs and two slices of semi-burned bacon. Caption: “ _whatcha doing for Valentine’s day?_ ”

He seems proud. Chloe doesn’t really think there’s much to be proud of and she takes great joy in telling him so: “ _I’m being productive for V day, mate, not everyone can spend their mornings scorching their breakfast_.” 

It’s not entirely true, considering the fact that she’s just squatting in the shade with her phone while Nadine’s actually doing things. Probably, at least.

Speaking of, Chloe pops her head over the ledge, catching sight of a sports bra clad Nadine standing on top of the highest perch, sweat glistening on her skin and eyes squinting down at something. One hand is at her hip, the other is cupped over her eyes. Chloe eyes her for a solid few seconds, appraising her. Hm. 

She balances on her tippy toes, elbows out on the ledge, and spam clicks the camera. The sunlight is too harsh for her to see the screen properly, so she hopes at least _one_ picture turns out okay. 

Back under the safety of her ledge, her phone buzzes again before she can check the photos. Nate’s sent her a couple sad faces and a knife emoji. She snorts, muttering a “lovely” under her breath.

He also sends her a video and, when she opens it, it’s Elena poking at bacon with a fork while Nate speaks in the background: “ _Tell Chloe to stop bullying me_.”

Elena laughs, looking directly into the camera. “ _Stop bullying my husband_.” Then, to Nate, “ _Y’know not everyone cares about Valentine’s day as much as you? Now stop filming me, I’m gonna go make us something edible._ ” 

It cuts out to an affronted, “ _Hey_!”

Chloe decides to leave them to it, pocketing her phone without a reply. She’ll check the photos later, preferably in front of Nadine just so she can make her blush. 

The four-by-four is parked near a patch of flowers, flaming red against the thick, dark green grass. 

She feels Nadine’s eyes on her when she finally vacates the refuge offered by the shadows and sprints to the car. However, when she looks back over her shoulder, Nadine’s cast her eyes away. 

Grinning, she turns back to the car to grab an old map and an uncapped bottle of sunscreen sitting in a cup holder. 

After bending to examine the flowers for thorns—thankfully, there aren’t any, she yanks five from the ground and wraps the map around the stems. To make it a little nicer, she sticks a few blades of grass in, rearranges some leaves, and loops a spare hair tie around the middle to keep it all together. 

There’s a pair of sunglasses in the passenger seat, so Chloe slips them on. Her own Ray-Bans are currently perched on Nadine’s head; it’s only fair that she takes Nadine’s. 

She stuffs the sunscreen into the last empty pocket she has and the flowers into the waistband of her pants, and jogs to the foot of the only standing tower. 

Scaling to the top is quick and easy work, and she finds Nadine sitting with her legs dangling over the edge when she gets there. There’s specks of sweat gathering on her skin and dipping down the lines of her back. Her hair is scraped high off her neck, giving Chloe a wonderful, unobstructed view of her shoulders.

“Hello, slacker,” she says without turning to look at Chloe. 

“Oh, I do love your pet names.” 

Chloe wisely chooses not to mention that she’d been texting Nate instead of poking around some rocks like she was supposed to.

She drops down next to Nadine, careful not to touch because of the heat. Nadine’s drenched shirt sits between them as a border. 

“Spot anything?” Chloe asks, handing the sunscreen over. 

Nadine shakes her head. “No. We’ve already used half the bottle, slathering more on probably won’t have much effect.” 

“Well. There goes my excuse to rub you,” she says, swerving to the side to avoid Nadine’s elbow. “ _Joking_ , love!” 

“Insufferable,” she mutters. 

They sit in a comfortable silence for a moment before Chloe hums and looks over. 

“It’s Valentine’s today.” 

Nadine raises an eyebrow, an arm extended out behind her as a prop and the other slung over her forehead. “Are we celebrating that?” 

“No.” Chloe smiles then, pulling the flowers out from behind her back. “Don’t need a special day to do nice things for you.” 

There’s a beat. 

Then, Nadine pushes her mouth onto Chloe’s so insistently that she almost loses her balance. Chloe grabs onto Nadine's forearm, eyes closing instinctively. It takes her another few seconds to notice Nadine’s laughter against the cant of her open mouth. 

When they pull apart, Nadine’s got her hands wrapped around Chloe’s on the crinkled map. “That was a cheesy line, even if you think it wasn't.”

Chloe sniffs, indignant. “Sure, but you fell for it anyway.” 

“Ja,” she replies, fondly. “Just like every other day, hey?”

This has Chloe beaming. She flaps the end of her belt playfully and places a hand against her chest. “As usual, you’re charming my pants off with your womanly wiles.” 

Nadine scoffs. “Shut up.” 

It doesn’t take long for them to get bored. They stand, dusting down their rolled-up cargo pants, and so ready to drive back to their motel and out of the sun. 

It makes for a pretty picture, Nadine gripping flowers, a shirt slung over her bare shoulder with sunglasses buried in her drawn up hair, at the top of a ruin. It’s a shame she knows she wouldn’t get away with taking a picture right now. Nadine would just glare at the camera. 

Not that that would make a  _bad_  picture. It would be true to form, after all. And she could always just push her shiny sunglasses over Nadine’s eyes. They’re in a hurry to leave though, so she resists the urge to whip her phone out and snap a few shots of Nadine griping at her. Instead, she only leans over and kisses Nadine's cheek, sweetly, before racing her to the driver's seat.

The sun sets beautifully that night, waves of soft oranges catching on the plastic water bottle they’d stuck the flowers into earlier. 

They don’t get to see it, too preoccupied with each other to bother. It doesn’t matter, dusk will be there tomorrow.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> im @yanggui on tumblr happy cny


End file.
